Friday, February 15, 2013

The MIT MUN Experience……



Nine students from Oakridge International School were a part of the MITMUN conference held at Boston. The students travelled accompanied by the Principal Captain Rohit Sen Bajaj.

On the first evening, we visited Times Square, and rested sufficiently after our long journey. On the second morning, we visited the glorious Empire State Building, and rode up to the top floor to witness the magnificent skyline of New York City. The view was enthralling, and we spent almost an hour there despite the biting cold. We then had the freedom to walk around Times Square, after which we visited the United Nations Headquarters. This was one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip. A friendly attendee from South Korea, who was well-versed with all the intricacies that govern the United Nations, guided us through a one and a half hour tour.

 In the evening, we had the opportunity to witness the everlasting Broadway spectacle that is The Phantom of the Opera. When we returned from the beautiful and awe-inspiring musical, we received news that there might be a terrible blizzard the next day, which would hinder our journey to Boston, and might cause the MUN to be cancelled. We were terribly disappointed, but learned the next day that a mini-version of the MUN would take place, with clubbed committees. When we finally reached Boston the next evening, through the blizzard Nemo, we were told that all our committees had been clubbed together (for example, UNEP+WHO+UNESCO), and that, as a result, so had our agendas.

We quickly rushed to research as much as we could on our new agendas before committee sessions the next day. In my committee at least (UNEP+WHO+UNESCO) we managed write, discuss, and pass resolutions on both of the agendas in merely one day and two hours of committee sessions. We were quite proud of this fact as both resolutions were comprehensive, and reflected the views of most of the delegates in the committee. After the committee sessions, we received our awards during the closing ceremony, and headed back to New York, tired from the hectic conference which resembled an actual crisis situation, but rejuvenated by our thrilling experiences from the conference. Before we left New York, we visited 5th Avenue, and took a ferry around the Statue of Liberty. Surrounded by heavy fog on that particular morning, Lady Liberty still emanated majesty, glory, and beauty. Before reaching the airport, we also visited Columbia University, and were guided by Mr. Alluri, who is a sophomore Economics major, and an Oakridge alumnus. When we finally departed to India on the night of February 12th 2013, we were disheartened to have to leave the beautiful cities of New York and Boston, and our newfound friends but were brimming with memories of snowball fights, new acquaintances, and enriching debate which we will definitely cherish for a long time to come. 

JyothiVallurupalli
IBDP XI-A

(JyothiVallurupalli won an award for the Best Delegate and also one for the Best Position Paper.)






 






 
 

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